


It's Always Okay to Call Me

by GloriaGilbertPatch



Category: Suits (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-18
Updated: 2016-07-18
Packaged: 2018-07-24 17:36:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7517260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GloriaGilbertPatch/pseuds/GloriaGilbertPatch
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For an anon on tumblr who asked for, "Harvey and Scottie reunion after the promised call in 5x13? (or the call itself)" Hope you enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Always Okay to Call Me

**Author's Note:**

> Anything you recognize from Suits or real life is not mine and is used fictitiously, etc. etc.

She knew that they were expensive and elegant and meant to convey the firm’s prestige, but sometimes Dana really hated the glass doors of her office. Namely, when she distractedly almost walked through them.

On the up side, it’s easy to clean coffee off glass. Down side, less easy to clean coffee off cream-colored silk blouses, which brought Dana around to the other time she really hated the glass doors of her office: When she needed to change clothes. She grabbed the cardigan she kept for days when the AC was too high and crouched under her desk, keying in her voice mail password to listen to her messages as she attempted to swap tops without giving a show either to the office or to the building across the street.

“Hi, Dana, this is Jeremy Davison, just after six, sorry to have missed you. I wanted to see if you and I could set a date to meet in advance of the next board meeting. I’ll follow up with an email, hope to talk to you soon. Have a good night.”

Einherjar merger deal. Jeremy was a good guy, even though his client was a giant pain in her ass, and meeting up with him before the board meeting was an excellent idea.

“Ms. Scott, hello, I’m so sorry to be calling you so late, um, except we’re having a bit of a problem with an SPE that Actaeon wants to set up, and Al Weinstein said you’re the expert, so, if you have a spare moment – whenever, really, I can make myself available – we would be so grateful…oh! This is Ryan Laughlin.”

She was indeed the expert on special purpose entities, and although she did her best to be kind and helpful – if demanding – with the associates, it did give her a bit of a thrill to realize how nervous this kid was to be calling her.

That would have to be trained out of him if he wanted to be any kind of corporate lawyer, of course.

“Scottie. It’s Harvey. Um. Today was the worst, and I just…I miss you, okay? Let’s get drinks, or, no, you come over here and have a drink with me, and…did you know Louis’s investment portfolio is _insane_?...God damn it, it’s late. Call me back when you get a chance. Love you.”

And apparently Harvey had gotten stoned last night, because the amount of alcohol that it would take to get him _that_ drunk would definitely be enough to kill him.

Cardigan firmly in place, she stood back up and ended the voice mail call before dialing her assistant’s extension.

“Hi, Kim, I am such a klutz – can you get my blouse to the dry cleaner at some point? I’ll give you the address; I have an account. Thanks.”

Jeremy next. He picked up personally on the first ring.

“This is Jeremy Davison.”

“Hi, Jeremy, this is Dana Scott.”

“Dana, hi, how are you?”

“I’m fine, thanks. Listen, sorry we couldn’t connect last night – I’d be happy to meet up with you. My assistant isn’t in yet, but off the top of my head, tomorrow morning would work, or Monday after two.”

“How about tomorrow at ten, at your office?”

“Perfect, see you then.”

“Great. Thanks, Dana.”

“Take care.”

Then, the hopelessly green associate.

“Ms. Scott!” he exclaimed, also answering on the first ring, and she bit back a smile.

“Mr. Laughlin,” she replied, just as formally. “I got your message. I’d be happy to help out with that SPE; why don’t you email me with the background details and then have Kim put a meeting on my calendar?”

“That sounds great, thank you so much,” he said, a bit in a rush, and Dana bit back another smile.

“You’re welcome. I look forward to seeing what your team has put together.”

And then…there was Harvey.

“Scottie, what a surprise.”

Donna, of course.

“Hi, Donna. Is he in the office yet? Fit to talk on the phone?”

“You heard.”

“I got a voice mail. What happened?”

Donna sighed, and Dana braced herself.

“Harvey drove Mike to prison yesterday, and when we got back…everyone was gone. From the partners all the way down to the file clerks. The only person left was Benjamin, the head of IT.”

“Jesus. Then what?”

“Then he and Jessica started drinking and peer-pressured Louis into smoking a joint, and things got a little weird.” She chuckled. “But I think they have a plan.”

“Well, as long as there’s a _plan_.” She paused. “Can I talk to him?”

“Putting you through right now. Bye, Scottie.”

“Good talking to you, Donna.”

She took a deep breath and waited for him to answer.

“This is Harvey Specter,” he finally said, coolly, and if she didn’t know him as well as she did she would never have guessed he stayed up half the night with alcohol and marijuana.

“Harvey. It’s Scottie. I, uh, I got your message.”

He groaned.

“Oh, God. What did I say?”

“Something about how yesterday was the worst, Louis is loaded, can we get a drink, and you miss and love me.”

“Well…I guess it could have been worse,” he said, and she could almost see the rueful smile on his face.

“I mean, I did try to walk into my door this morning and spilled coffee down my blouse, so really I should be thanking you for making me feel like less of an idiot.”

“So you’re wearing a wet shirt?”

“I am not.”

“So you’re not _wearing_ a shirt.”

“I put a sweater on, jeez.” She chuckled a little. “Look, based on what Donna told me, it doesn’t sound like this whole thing is quite over yet, and I know we said…but yes, I’ll get a drink with you. If you still want.”

“Thanks,” he said, after a long pause.

“Harvard club, six o’clock?”

“You hate the Harvard club.”

“Yeah, but you love it. And they do make pretty decent drinks.” She took a moment, trying to decide if she needed to say more – _I’m sorry_ , _How are you?_ …even _I told you so_ – but nothing seemed right and she really wasn’t ready for this conversation, might not even be at six tonight. That was Harvey Specter for you, though.

“I’ll see you tonight, Harvey.”

“See you,” he said, softly, and they both hung up. Dana took a deep breath before turning on her computer, pretty sure she wasn’t going to get anything productive done today and wondering if she maybe shouldn’t push back the meeting with Jeremy already.

\--

By the time five-thirty rolled around, Dana had managed to figure out what Einherjar was willing to offer and had printed out a twenty-page summary on Actaeon’s proposed SPE that she had not yet read. She briefly considered swinging by home to change – or, hell, sending Kim out to buy her a different outfit – but in the end, Harvey was the one who had called, high and drunk and wanting her, and he could deal with the fact that she was wearing slacks and a sweater with her hair pulled back instead of the sheaths and pencil skirts and clinging blouses he liked to see her in. And she felt a little guilty even leaving as early as she was, but it was her prerogative as a partner and she really had gotten done more than expected, so she locked her office and headed over to Forty-fourth.

In what was probably a once-in-a-lifetime shining moment, Harvey was already there, sitting at the bar and waiting for her, perfectly dressed as usual but slumping slightly, his rounded shoulders the only indication of the pressure she knew he was under.

“Hey,” she said, neutrally, laying a gentle hand on one shoulder and coming around to sit next to him. “What are you drinking?” She glanced down at the amber-colored liquid in his lowball glass and rolled her eyes. “Why do I even ask?” The bartender came over to take her drink order, and she smiled and handed him her card.

“Vodka tonic, please – Stoli – and I’m paying for his, too,” she said with a smile. Harvey frowned at her, his masculinity wounded, but she was nonchalant enough that he shrugged a little when the bartender glanced at him and accepted the return of his credit card along with Dana’s drink.

“You’ve clearly had a long day,” she said, as a casual explanation, and she settled into her seat.

“You have no idea,” he said darkly, and Dana raised her eyebrows.

“Oh, you wanna play that game? Harvey. _Everyone_ has told me, asked me, or generally hinted around me. Pearson Specter Litt is _the_ hot piece of gossip at the moment, and I have a fucking photo of you on display in my office.”

“You do?” he asked, getting a bit of a cocky grin on his face. She rolled her eyes.

“Don’t let it go to your head; it’s one of those multi-photo frames with a bunch of pictures from Harvard,” she told him, but she smiled just enough to assure him that yes, he was special.

“Thanks for drinking with me,” he said, rather than address her point, and Dana shrugged.

“What are friends for?” She paused a moment. “So…the last time I saw you, you mentioned seeing someone. How’s that going? Feeling any better?”

Harvey furrowed his brow, confused.

“You’re not gonna ask me…?”

“I mean, I’ll listen if you want to tell me, but it’s clearly stressing you out, so I thought…”

“That you’d go for the completely un-stressful approach of asking me about my therapy sessions.” There was enough humor dancing in his eyes that Dana couldn’t help laughing.

“What can I say; we live stressful lives,” she answered, grinning. “So. Hmm. Guess I picked a good time to leave London; how long do you figure before no one cares about Libor anymore; I just got talked into signing up for a charity 10K despite the fact that it’s been about a year since I ran more than one mile; my nephew’s touring Harvard this summer and wants me to come with him instead of Jen and Andy…”

“Scottie,” he said quietly, laying his hand on hers as he cut her off. “I’m in a jam, and…I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

Dana’s grin immediately faded away and she turned her hand to interlace her fingers with his.

“Professionally or personally?”

He shook his head.

“Both. Mike’s…you know, I never wanted to hire a dedicated associate; Jessica forced me. And now he’s like an extra brother.”

“I know,” Dana said, giving his hand a squeeze. “And don’t get me wrong; I’m still pissed – but I’m glad for you. He seems like a pretty decent guy.”

“He is,” said Harvey heavily. “And I’m gonna miss him like crazy the next two years. And then…the firm’s coming down around us, Scottie. I mean, we have a plan, but it’s not a _great_ plan or a _surefire_ plan, and even if it works we’ll have a lot of reputation rehabbing to do, and cash flow issues, hell, maybe even _solvency_ issues…and it’s all my fault.” He shook his head. “I hired him. I could’ve hired anyone Harvard graduated between 2008 and 2011 – and you know those were shitty years in the market, I could have hired _anyone_ – but I picked him. And God damn it, Scottie, I still would.” He tossed back the rest of his scotch. “I could lose everything I spent the past two decades working for, and I’d do it again.”

Dana sat quietly, trying to look sympathetic, trying to be the ear he needed right now even though he was being _insane_.

“You love him,” she said finally, and Harvey nodded.

“I’d’ve told you, though,” he said abruptly. “I…I wanted you to work at the firm, and I didn’t want to make you complicit, but if you’d stayed, even not knowing, it would’ve been the same. I should’ve just told you. God knows if Latham wanted you badly enough they would’ve found a job for you in New York.”

“I was also pretty sure I was gonna get an offer out of Davis Polk,” she admitted with a rueful smile. “I just wanted you to man up on what being _in your life_ really meant.”

“I love you,” he said suddenly, reaching out to touch her hair and pulling a couple of strands free from her messy updo. His face was maudlin and sad but sincere, and Dana let him touch her, leaning close to press a kiss against his temple when he was finished.

“I know you do,” she said quietly. “I love you, too. I don’t think I ever stopped.”

He bent forward to kiss her, then, and it took all of Dana’s willpower to turn her face so that his mouth fell on her cheek instead of her lips.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she whispered. Harvey looked crestfallen.

“I’m too late?” There was an undertone of devastation and pleading to his voice, and it tore at her heart but she pushed it down before shaking her head.

“I didn’t say that,” she assured him, looking at him straight in the eyes so that he could see how much she meant it. “I just…you’re hurting, in a lot of ways. You’re vulnerable. I’m back on my feet, mostly, and then I see you and I can barely keep it together, and that…that’s not healthy, not right now.”

“I don’t care,” Harvey said stubbornly. “I just want…”

“I know. I do, too.” She smiled wistfully. “But I’m not ready to give up on you, Harvey, and I think that this…this would be a step back for us.” It was her turn, then, to reach out, ruffling the thick hair at his temples and letting her fingers trail along his jaw, unable to keep from thinking how beautiful he was, how much she loved him.

“Come home with me,” he said impulsively, and Dana rolled her eyes.

“I just explained why I don’t want to kiss you, and you’re translating that as I want to have sex with you?”

“No, no, I don’t mean that; I just…stay with me. Platonically. Wear all your clothes; the bed’s big enough that you can go the whole night without touching me. I just…I don’t want to be alone.”

Dana sighed. She never could resist him when he asked for things he wanted personally. Harvey Specter, for once and for always the best closer in New York.

“Fine,” she said, finally. “Let me finish my drink, and we need to stop by my place so I can get a change of clothes and something to sleep in, but fine.”

“Thank you,” he said sincerely. She rolled her eyes a little and gulped down the rest of her drink, gesturing for the bill and quickly signing her name to the draft.

\--

When she woke up the next morning, Harvey’s arms firmly around her waist as if she were a human teddy bear, she couldn’t help rolling her eyes again. Almost twenty years later and there was still no getting away from this man…though by now she was pretty sure she never wanted to.


End file.
